In a new interview with I Am Rogue, Alan Rickman discusses his newest film, CBGB, which also stars Rupert Grint. Alan plays club owner Hilly Kristal and Rupert plays Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys. CBGB opens in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on October 11th.  The full interview can be read here with some snippets below.

The Dead Boys’ Cheetah Chrome is played by your Harry Potter series co-star Rupert Grint, who you’ve known since he was just a boy. Was it nice to reunite with him for this film and see how he has grown as an actor since the Potter films?

Rickman: Well you know it is a validation of the fact that people shouldn’t be trapped by one thing and God bless him there he was looking quite different. It’s great that the acting profession reinvents itself for people in that way and he moves on.

Were you familiar with CBGB and the punk scene of the ‘1970s, and what kind of research did you do into the life of club owner Hilly Kristal in order to play him in the film?

Rickman: I was completely not familiar. I had never been to CBGB. In the ‘70s I was a student in London and punk rock was just a lot of noise to me, apart from people like David Bowie who was cool and arty. Then I knew Blondie, and Patti Smith, but I really wasn’t buying albums by The Romones or The Dead Boys or anything. I couldn’t afford them anyways. Research was made easier because there is so much material available on DVD now. So I watched Hilly, and I listened to him. It helped because there was so much irony in the fact that he started a club to be filled with country music and it never was, and that’s because he was quite brave about recognizing a moment in time. Also, given how much noise was involved in the music and in the club, he was essentially a very quiet man. He was rumored to have a terrible temper at times but mostly he had a still, calm center in the middle of it all.

What do you think it was that Hilly Kristal saw in these bands?

Rickman: I think it is pretty much an accurate quote from the film when Hilly says, “These kids have something to say and we should listen.” So it wasn’t just the music it was the lyrics too and the fact that he only let them play original music and no covers or anything. So it was a moment in time for him and a moment in time for young people, and a particular kind of rebellion was going on.